Did you all have a happy Valentine's Day? Are you waiting until the weekend to go out with your honey? With your girls? Lounge around at home? It doesn't matter, you can still get prettified by putting some flowers in your hair!
The Beauty Department has a step by step photo tutorial on how to pin flowers in your hair so that they will stay. Just use hair pins to push through the middle of the flower!
I love this simple, understated look. Beautiful for a wedding, Renaissance fair, special event, or just for fun. It sits back on the head so as to not overwhelm the face.
But if you are going for an all out look, Style Noted has some excellent ideas on how to wear flower crowns. Hair that has a soft, natural texture really tends to compliment this lovely accessory. Have you ever worn a flower crown, or would you ever? I would love to hear about it! I plan on wearing a lovely pink rose this weekend :)
I have been drawn to these images and I couldn't figure out why. But when I pulled them all together, it hit me. There is a common theme of a varied coral hues, spikey flowers, vintage charm, competing textures, natural themes and lots of casual muted white backgrounds. Almost a natural history type of flair, with a bit of eccentric fun thrown in.
It's amazing to see how fashion, flowers, treats, books and interior design can be combined to resemble one another in such an obscure and unintentional way.
(wearing my mom's vintage dress and some thrifted, red vintage shoes, necklace f 21. love them)
Our Easter weekend was busy and wonderful. Our church (edited to add: I discovered is a lie) had a temple outing and then headed off together for a little bbq and Easter egg hunt, followed by a slide show of everyone. A very lovely, very pleasant, somewhat stressful, very exhausting day. Our Sunday was full of reflections on Christ, chocolate, salsa and naps. I hope everyone's Easter was wonderful!
We saw this old overrun home while driving through our neighborhood this weekend. It was in sad shape, then we noticed a gaping hole on the side. After a slight suggestion by my husband, I grabbed my camera and ran out to see the extent of the damage.
I wonder if this home fire was accidental, did a family leave in the night in terror? Or, was it vacant and set fire by arsons/bored teens? Or, perhaps more common, it was a foreclosed home, set ablaze by a desperate family to escape the mortgage/bankruptcy. I am thinking the home was vacant, due to the fire marks and debris. There was a broken down swingset, shed and refrigerator in the backyard. A sad fate for any of the situations.
It was a small and thrilling discovery to see several wildly overgrown rosebushes on the property. I felt a pang of wonderment as how the roses in our rental turned diseased no matter the care we gave them (though they are returning)... yet the ones here that have been left with minimal rain and lack of pruning have thrived. Somehow, they have not been forgotten.
It makes me think... that even in the most desperate of situations, even in torment and the fires of our own personal lives, there will always be a seed of beauty to be gleaned from the experience.
There is a time of pain, but a season of hope. There is a time of destruction, but a season of renewal. There will always be some sort of pain... but always an even greater time of joy. For this, I am thankful for my God, my family, my faith... For I know, there are always good things to come:
... especially since the roses removed from their branches so easily... and fit very nicely into my little vases. May your day be as sweet as fresh cut roses, may good things come your way, may your outlook be one of progress and thankfulness. May you remember that you are not forgotten, that He is mindful of you and loves you.
I thought I would do a little update on our new rental's yard. I posted here about how half of the plants were dead, and the roses were badly diseased, tree branches overgrown, weird growths around the trees... so, I did lots of pruning and transplanted a lot of the plants, but they all died anyways. I planted some flowers and the ornamental grasses, as well as some basil and cilantro seeds that are sprouting quite nicely. I love cooking with fresh herbs!
That dirt area is where the herb seeds are.
**(edited to add, a huge rosemary, basil and cilantro bush are there now... and the rose bush came back!)
These pics were taken Labor Day weekend, so the flowers have grown a lot since then, but you get the idea! Amazing how getting rid of all of the disheveled looking plants in the garden and around the trees made the home feel much more cozy. It is really starting to feel like a 'home sweet home'.
I All Things Thrifty's cousin's wedding and had to share because it is so beautiful. They collected colorful glass jars and vases for months for the tables and filled them with fresh local flowers and ribbons of moss down the centers of the tables. The touch of the colorful craft butterflies were a sweet and whimsical touch.
The beautiful fabric garland used in the center of the canopy was handmade using embroidery hoops and torn fabric shreds. Directions to make your own included at the bottom of post.
